Marionette
by jinx777
Summary: A week after being thrown out of the orphanage, on his fifth birthday Naruto was chased by three drunken villages into a dead end alleyway. Just before they reach him a shadowed figure appears out of nowhere and saves the young blonde from a beating. This single event will affect the Naruto world in ways none could ever anticipate. Rated M mostly for causation
1. The Start of Something

**Before you all kill me for starting a new fic, this one has been on my laptop for a while, I just never posted it XP**

**I have several ideas for puppets that he will have, though a few might not be until later in the story, but if any of you have an idea for one feel free to let me know it and if I use it I will give credit where credit is due :)**

**As for a pairing, I haven't decided yet, but it will most likely be either Tenten or Anko. Tenten because puppets are basically weapons, enough said. As for Anko, partly because he will be using poisons in a lot of his puppets, and partly because I just like her character. XD**

**Hope you all enjoy and remember to leave a review and tell me what you think.**

XXX

Summary- A week after being thrown out of the orphanage, on his fifth birthday Naruto was chased by three drunken villages into a dead end alleyway. Just before they reach him a shadowed figure appears out of nowhere and saves the young blonde from a beating. This single event will affect the Naruto world in ways none could ever anticipate. Rated M mostly for causation.

XXX

**Disclaimer- I own nothing **:(

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Chapter 1- The Start of Something...

XXX

Even as the celebrations were in full swing around him, Naruto couldn't stop to take in the sights of the festival. His breathing heavy, the five year old blonde boy chanced a look over his shoulder and saw that the three men were still chasing him, although the fact that they were drunk made it easier for his short legs to keep him ahead. His cloths were filthy, having spent the last few days living on the streets, and had several tears in them.

He passed people as he ran, not even bothering to ask for help, if any of them even took the time to acknowledge his existence it would only be to glare at him and tell him to get lost. The different coloured lights that had been hung around the streets were little more then a blur to him as he passed them and the sounds of the festival all meshed together into a wall of sound.

He could feel his legs burning along with his lungs and knew that he would need to stop soon, but if he did then the men would catch up to him, so he pushed on, his small body straining with the effort. He was almost at his limit when he caught sight of an ally out of the corner of his eye and without thinking Naruto made a sharp turn, only to find himself at a dead end. Before he had time to run back out the three men had already blocked off the end of alley and gave a drunken grin as they stumbled towards him.

With nowhere to go Naruto could only press himself into the wall at his back, a small whimper escaping his throat as he heard the men cracking their knuckles in anticipation. Then without warning the man in the middle gasped, his hand reaching up to the back of his neck, before his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell to the ground unconscious, a senbon sticking out of the back of his neck.

The other two men turned back to the mouth of the alley and stared at the shadowed figure before them. Not much could be seen of him, the lights from the festival making it hard to see him properly other then the long hooded cloak he wore. Even in their drunken hazed minds the two remaining men could tell that the man was a ninja, after all who else could throw a senbon with such accuracy, so after picking up their friend they ran passed the man and back out to the festival.

When the three men were out of sight the mystery figure slowly walked forward with a slight limp in his left leg, the small blonde boy press even harder into the wall as he got closer. When the figure was within reaching distance he slowly brought his hand forward toward Naruto, who closed his eyes, waiting for a blow that never came. Instead, the man gently placed his hand on the boy's spiky mop of blonde hair and spoke in a gentle voice, clearly from an old man.

"You poor child, you have nothing to fear from me."

Without waiting for a response the man suddenly picked Naruto up, the boy too shocked to resisted, and slowly made his way back to the street. No one seemed to even notice them as the man carried the small boy in his arms towards a small house a few doors down from the alley they had come from. They entered the front door and the man walked into the living room and place Naruto gently on a couch, taking a blanket that had been draped over the back of it and wrapped it around the small blondes form.

"I will be right back with a warm drink."

Without another word the man left the room.

Naruto was still shocked at what was happening, no one had ever been this nice to him before. It was for this reason, along with the fact he was coming down from an adrenalin boost after being chased half way around the village, that the whiskered five year old didn't try and run away the moment the man turned his back.

While the man was gone, Naruto took the time to look around the room.

It was mostly plain, other than the two seated couch he was sat on there was an armchair to his right, a small coffee table, and a large fireplace in front of him. That was where the plain part ended. The walls were covered in weapons, from katana to war hammers, they were covered in every weapon imaginable. On a small table to his left there sat a single picture, worn with age but still in good condition. It showed two men in their twenties with smiles on their faces looking into the camera. One had dark red hair cut short, grey eyes and had a long red scarf wrapped around the bottom of his face, while the other had spiky brown hair with black eyes and a small goatee.

But the thing that caught his attention the most was large, human sized puppet that was hung on the wall over the fireplace. It was badly damaged; it's left leg and right arm missing along with a large hole in its chest. It was covered in badly damaged knight armour, like the ones he had once seen in a picture book before it was taken away from him, with helmet visor down to cover the face. For some unknown reason Naruto couldn't help but think that it was missing something else too, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

It was at that moment that the man returned with a cup in each hand, the cloak he had been wearing hanging on a stand next to the door. He was old; his face covered in deep wrinkles and the top of his head was bold with the exception of a ring of grey hair on the sides and back. His right eye was covered by a black eye patch with a scar pocking out of the top and bottom by about an inch, and the one that could be seen was steel grey. He also had a long grey beard that reached all the way down to his stomach and covered the lower half of his face. He walked slowly, as if each step was an effort, and he could see his hands shaking from across the room. It was at then that Naruto noticed something else. Both the man's right arm and left leg were made out of wood.

Seeing where the young boy had been looking, a small chuckle escaped the old mans lips as he handed him one of the cup with hot chocolate in it as he gave him a soft smile, before he sat in the arm chair.

"Lost my leg in the first Great War, my eye in the second and my arm in the third, and I'll tell you one thing lad, I'd do it all again in a heartbeat."

Leaning back into their seats and making themselves comfortable, they spent the next few minutes in silence sipping their drinks.

"By the way, my name is Sato."

Looking at the now named Sato over the rim of his drink, Naruto opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted.

"I already know your name lad; you don't need to tell me."

"…why did you help me?"

Letting out a sigh, the old ninja put his cup on the table in front of him and looked the smaller boy in the eye.

"Are you asking me why I stopped three drunken man from beating up a child?"

Seeing the blank look on the boys face Sato shook his head with a small frown on his face as he muttered to himself quietly.

"I have seen a lot of things in my life, but the expression on your face right now is something new. To think a five year old thinks it stranger that someone stopped him from being attacked then actually _being _attacked."

Looking back to the still confused blonde, Sato let another small smile cross his face before answering.

"I helped you because I believed it was the right thing to do. It's the same reason I fought in three wars."

"...why do they hate me?"

For a moment Sato considered not answering, or just claiming not to know, but the look in the boys eyes stopped these thoughts. He had a right to know what had been done to him and why he was hated.

"Five years ago the villager was attacked by the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the great demon fox and it is said that the Yondaime was able to defeat it by using a suicide technique. But the fact is that the Biju can not be killed, they are nothing but a mass of sentient chakra and have no true body to speak of. However it is possible to seal them inside a living host, a child normally, with still developing chakra coils so that their body can adjust to the sudden increase in chakra. On the night of the attack the Yondaime sealed the great demon inside your body, making you its prison."

Taking a few minutes to think over what he was being told, the small blonde started silently crying.

"So they hate me because I am a demon?"

The old man's reaction was instant and violent, not giving the blonde any time to dwell on his thoughts.

"Never think that! I said you were the prison, not the demon! They hate you because they don't understand the art of sealing, and you are a reminder of everything that they lost when it attacked, never think yourself the beast!"

Nodding his head in understanding, they fell back into a comfortable silence. Sato watched as the boy looked around at the walls again, his eyes lingering on the old puppet above the fire place and his eye lit up slightly at the interest he was showing in it.

"That's Zero, he got me through all three wars and is my most trusted weapon. He helps me even to this day."

When Naruto turned to face the old ninja he saw him gesturing to his fake arm and leg and flexed his wooden fingers to emphasise his point. It also drew the five year olds attention, having just realised that even though it was made of wood, Sato was able to move his hand as if it was real. Without realising he was doing it, the blonde boy leaned forward to get a better look at the limb, bringing a small smile to the retired ninja's face.

"It's called the Art of Puppetry."

When he saw that he had the boy's full attention, Sato reached down to the right side of his armchair and picked up a small wooden puppet that was on the floor and placed it on the table. It was only a foot tall and didn't have any feature, making Naruto think of the mannequins in shop windows. For a moment nothing happened, then it twitched, then it shifted, and as he watched, it stood up on its feet and started walking around the table, waving at him. When Naruto looked back up at Sato he saw that he had his good hand out ad a figure pointing towards the small figure on the table.

"I use my chakra to form invisible strings that control the puppets movements, the better you are the fewer fingers you need to use."

Leaning forwards again, Naruto slowly brought up his hand and pocked it with his finger, giggling when it started pretending to lose its balance and fall off the table. Chuckling at the sight, Sato suddenly had an idea and looked at the blonde with a small smirk.

"Want me to show you how to do it?"

Turning to look back at the old man, Naruto sent him a large grin.

"Sure!"

XXX

After that night Naruto had started living with Sato in his spare room and had started to call him Gramps. It always made the old ninja smile when he did that. He taught him all sorts of things, from cooking and cleaning, to how to hunt and skin animals and which plants were dangerous. He even taught him to read and write, something the caretakers at the orphanage had never bothered to do.

Sato told the blonde about his life, how he had been born and raised in Suna for the first seven years of his life before his family moved to Konoha and that was why he knew the Art of Puppetry. He told Naruto how he was the last of his family and how his wife had died several years ago and that they never had kids.

It took the blonde a month before he was able to make chakra strings, and another week after that for him to learn how to attach them to the small marionette. When he was able to do that Sato would have him spend the next month making the little figure walk around the house with him to get use to how it moved and the different finger movements that he needed to make. When he had learned that to an expectable level he moved on to the next stage of his training.

They were in the basement, or as Sato like to call it, the Workshop. It had a large table in the middle of the room, with another smaller one next to it and two with wheels on the legs to make it easier to move around. Each wall had a large rack filled with tools, puppet parts, weapons or other little pieces that Naruto still didn't understand the use of. In one corner of the room was a pile of different sized wood and in another there was an actual forge, though it had been years since it was last used.

"...cough...Naruto, come over here...cough...it's time we move on to the next part of your training."

The small blonde boy gave his grandfather figure a worried look as he made his way over to a table, over the last few weeks he had started coughing and his skin was paler then usual. But every time Naruto questioned him about it the old ninja would wave it off, saying that it was just a stubborn cold and that he would be fine in a days.

Nodding when the blonde was next to him Sato straightened out the piece of paper on the table in front of him, showing a drawing of the small marionette he used to practice. It also had several more drawings around it and showing closer detail on different parts and things that could be added to them. Seeing the concentration on the boys face, Sato nodded in approval before explaining.

"...cough... I've decided that you are ready to make your puppet your own and add weapons. Now because it's only small you are limited on what you can do...cough... but you need to start somewhere."

Nodding his understanding, Naruto spent the next hour looking over the designs, making notes on a separate piece of paper as he did. When he was happy with his work, and after getting the approval of Sato, who made several changes where needed, the blonde boy started walking around the room, taking things off the shelves and putting them on the table.

It took Naruto three hours straight to make the adjustments, Sato only giving advice when needed but otherwise leaving it to his young apprentice. He made a few mistakes, but luckily they were all easy to fix and by the end he had a satisfied look on his face as he sent a grin towards Sato, who after taking a moment to look over his work nodded.

He had used the original puppet as the 'skeleton', and built around it, adding to it piece by piece.

He got the idea for the puppet from one of the books he read when he had first started living with Sato, a book about fairy tales. The once featureless puppet now had two large eyes implanted in the front of its head that were able to move, a long, pointed noise made from a kunai that stuck out from its face and a mouth on a hinge full of sharp teeth and long, pointed ears on either side of its head. It had a slight hunch on its back and its arms hung down to the tabletop even when it was stood up, with small legs. Instead of hands it had a small single bladed axe on the end of its left arm and a hammer on the right. To finish it off Naruto had painted it dark green and put a small pointed purple hat on its head, a purple vest, purple shorts and green shoes that curled at the ends.

He had based the design off of smoothing called a Goblin.

"...cough...not bad for your first try, break it down for...cough...me."

Lifting his hands and attaching chakra strings to his new puppet, Naruto showed Sato the different features as he explained them.

"The axe and hammer are obvious, and the teeth are small metal barbs so it can bite through flesh. The nose can be detached for stabbing, but for now the hump on its back is hollow, I'm not sure what I can use it for yet."

Nodding his head again, Sato took a moment to think before pushing his chair over to a shelf and taking out another marionette with kunai instead of hands and placing it on the table. Without a word the retired ninja attached chakra strings onto the small puppet.

"The next part...cough... of your training is getting used to working your puppet in battle, you will use yours and we will fight with them every day for two hours...cough... straight. When we are not doing this I will...cough...teach you about different poisons, along with the antidotes."

Smiling at the man, Naruto nodded his head.

"Sure thing Gramps."

XXX

"Tell me Naruto...cough...what are the main weaknesses of Puppetry?"

It had been three months since Naruto had made his first puppet and along with his lessons on poisons, mechanics, craftsmanship and 'battle experience' Sato had started trying to get the small blonde into the mind frame of a ninja.

"The first is that we need to stay within seeing desistance of our puppets to be able to control them effectively and that while we are controlling our puppets it is harder to fight close quarters if we are found by our opponent, because we specialise in mid to long range fighting."

Sending the boy a proud smile, the retired ninja nodded his head in satisfaction.

"...cough... Correct. Ignoring your first answer for now, what is a good solution for a Puppeteer in regards to close combat?"

After taking a moment to consider his answer, when he decided what to say Naruto nodded before looking back to the old man.

"We use special puppets that have a hidden compartment inside them that we can hide in and control our puppets from there. It also works as defensive armour depending on the Class of puppet it is."

"Good, now tell me what the different Classes of puppets that can be made are?"

"There are the Tank class, which are used as either 'heavy hitters' or 'defence' and are used for close quarter's battle. Range class, which are normally equipped with mid to long range weapons and are used as supplementary. Then there is Basic class, which are normally human based puppets with all-around fighting capabilities. Cage class are used for trapping. And finally is Mystery class, a puppet that doesn't fall into the other categories and is a puppeteer's personal puppet that they make themselves from scratch and while it can have characteristics of the other classes, it is these puppets that tell you the most about the puppeteer."

Getting another smile from Sato at his answer, Naruto couldn't stop the grin from spreading across his face.

XXX

Over the next two years Sato taught Naruto everything he could, the now seven year old blonde eagerly taking in everything he was told and the retired ninja was happy he had found such a good apprentice in the boy. He might not be a 'Genius', but the boy had a good mind and was able to come up with designs for puppets that had never been seen or thought of before.

But now there was a new problem.

Sato was dying.

He had been for some time but had been fighting it, pushing himself to last just that little longer, so he could teach Naruto just that little bit more, but he was running out of time. At this point he was only able to move because of chakra string, but soon even that would be beyond him. He also hadn't told Naruto yet. But how could he tell the boy that the only person to ever show him kindness was dying?

Letting out a sigh, his breath slightly laboured, Sato motioned for the whiskered boy to come closer and, taking a moment, took a letter out of his pocket and handed it to the confused blonde.

"...cough, cough...I want you to take this letter...cough...to an old friend of mine. His name his Hiruzen...cough...and you will find him at the top of the tall tower in the middle of the village...cough...understand?"

When he saw Naruto nod, Sato rubbed the top of his head with his good hand and gave a weak smile.

"...Good lad..."

XXX

To say Sarutobi was shocked when the seven year old Naruto walked into the tower and asked to see him was an understatement. After he had found out that the head of the orphanage had thrown him out he had been furious and, after having the women arrested, had started looking for the boy. But for two year nothing had been found. They were still looking, though the search had been moved to outside the village walls, Hiruzen faring the boy may have been taken by another village, but they had found nothing.

Then without warning he showed up at the Hokage's tower. Two years of endless search parties and sleepless nights worrying about what had become of the boy, and here he was sat across from him.

"What can I do to help you young man?"

Smiling, Naruto reached into his pocket ad pulled out a very crumpled letter and, after trying to straighten it out, handed it to the aged leader of the village.

"Gramps told me to give this to his old friend Hiruzen, and the lady outside said that that's you."

Taking the letter with a curios look, Sarutobi opened it and quickly read what it said. By the time he had finished reading the letter a sad expression was seen on the old Hokage's face, a single tear falling down his cheek before he took a deep breath and looked to the blonde seven year old in front of him.

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_Dear Hiruzen,_

_I'm sorry my old friend, I know that you have been looking for Naruto over the last two years but I couldn't bare the idea of him being taken away from me. I have spent the last two years training him, making him strong enough to face the ninja world and preparing him, and if I could I would spend another two or more._

_But I can't, my time is running out and by the time you finish reading this I may have already passed. My body has been failing me for a while now and I kept pushing so I could teach him a little more, but I can't fight it anymore. Naruto doesn't know, so don't let him return on his own, he will need someone to be there for him. Please tell him I am sorry for keeping this from him._

_He is strong Hiruzen, don't let anybody change that, send him to the academy but keep an eye on him for me and make sure they don't do anything. He knows about the fox, I told him long ago and explained what it means, he understands that he is not the fox. I am sorry that I broke your law but he needed to know, to understand why he was hated._

_I leave everything I own to him; my house and everything in it is his._

_I wish we could have talked one last time my old friend, my you live the rest of your life well._

_Sato_

XXX

Two months later found Naruto sat at the back of a class room full of kids his own age. It was his first day at the academy and just like Sato had taught him the blonde was taking in everything that was going on around him. He memorized the different faces in the class, especially those from clans, taking note of those that had already had some kind of training and those that hadn't.

Sato had died two months ago, and just like his letter had said he was gone by the time Naruto had gotten back home, Sarutobi at his side. He had cried for a week straight. But it was like Sato had always told him, 'life must go on', and that was exactly what he had done. Since then he had become even more dedicated to learning the Art of Puppetry, hardly talking to anyone anymore, not that there were many he could talk to in the first place. But Sarutobi had made it a habited of stopping by at least once a week to check on him and make sure he was alright.

Naruto was wearing a black sleeveless muscle shirt with a dark blue trench coat that fell to his ankles and covered his hands with the sleeves, leaving just the ends of his finger visible, black jeans and black boots. He wore a pair of orange tinted sunglasses with a black frame and had a pair of headphones around his neck that didn't seem to be attached to anything. He also wore a long red scarf wrapped around the bottle of his face and around his neck, hiding it from the nose down.

As they were waiting for the teacher to arrive the blonde took out a small, ten inch tall puppet he had been working on and started to fiddle with it, ignore everyone else in the class and the looks a few of them were sending him. He didn't even look up when the Aburame in the class, a tall, quiet boy with spiky brown hair, sunglasses and a high collared trench coat that cover the bottom half of his face from view took the empty seat to his right.

After a few minutes passed one of the boys in the class, an Inuzuka by the look of him and the small puppy resting in his arms, took the seat to Naruto's left and leaned in closer to get a better look at what he was doing. But after a moment of watching decided it would be better to just ask.

"Why are you messing around with a doll?"

Letting out a deep breath, Naruto turned his head slightly to look at the dog like boy out of the corner his eye before deciding to respond with a question of his own.

"Why do have a dog?"

Frowning slightly at getting a question instead of an answer, Kiba patted the small white puppy in his lap on the head.

"Akamaru is my partner, when I become a ninja he will be part of how I fight."

Nodding his head without looking up from his work, the blonde smiled a little at the explanation, not that anyone could see it.

"That's the same reason why I'm 'messing with a doll', which by the way isn't a doll, it's a puppet."

"How can a puppet help you in a fight?"

"How can a dog?"

Instead of getting annoyed at his answer like the first time, Kiba had a small smirk on his face. He may not be the smartest boy his age, bit he was raised in a clan so he was able to understand what the blonde kid next to him was doing. No ninja worth his headband would willingly tell a stranger his secrets.

"My name is Kiba, and this little guy is Akamaru."

"...Naruto"

They talked for a while after that, well Kiba did. Naruto mostly just responded when asked a question and listened while tinkering with the small puppet. But when the teacher came in the class fell silent and everyone looked to the scar faced chunin at the front of the class, except Naruto.

"Welcome everyone, my name is Umino Iruka and I will be your teacher for the next four year. I am looking forward to working with each and every one of you, and hope that we can all get along. Now seeing as it is your first day we will be having a basic test, just to get an idea of how much you all know, and after that we will be going outside to do a few exercises so I can see how skilled and fit you all are."

Though there were a few groans at the word 'test', nobody really complained.

XXX

The years went by and in that time Naruto had settled into the academy with little problems. He was lucky, his teacher Iruka was one of the few that didn't hate him, unlike the other teachers that would glare at him when he passed them in the halls, and treated him like any other student. The scared chunin had been a little surprised when he had first seen the young blonde working on a puppet, seeing as it was more a Suna speciality then Konoha, but after a year it had become the norm to see him almost constantly working on something or other. At first Iruka had tried to stop him from doing it in the middle of class so he would pay attention, but after several 'surprise questions' in an attempt to catch him out there didn't seem to be a point.

It turned out that even though Naruto hardly ever seemed to be paying attention, there was very little that the boy didn't take in.

Over the last five years Naruto had set himself in the role of a bright but slightly absent minded and quiet boy that was always seen tinkering with either a puppet or weapon of some kind that was somewhere in the middle of the class rank, not so strong that he would attract a lot of attention, but not too weak that another teacher could try and mess with his grades without being noticed. But despite his class ranking Naruto was actually in the top ten in his class. Like many things, Sato had taught him the importance of keeping a low profile for as long as possible, a fact that was even more important for puppeteers, and it was a lesson he had take to heart.

Sato had always told him there are three types of ninja in the world, those that build up a reputation and are able to use the fear to their advantage in battle, those that hide most of there strength and skill until they needed it, and finally those that were arrogant and didn't mind showing off. Needless to say the last kind was the one that didn't last long in the ninja world, unless they were strong enough to back it up.

They had actually talked about it a lot before Sato had died, and agree that because of the way he was treated in the village because of the fox that he should try and keep a low profile until graduating the academy. After all even though it was in the best interest of a Ninja to hide their skills, it was in the best interest of their village to show what they can do so that more people would hire them. It was a complicated and messy business, trying to balance the life of a ninja.

He had also made friends with several of his classmates.

Kiba had become a close friend since they had met the first day, and when they weren't training the two would hang out after class. Shino, although the two didn't talk much, had also become one of his friends. Then there was Choji, and through him Shikamaru, who he would regularly play chess with. He had never actually beaten the lazy Naru, but he had played him to a draw several times. He even had a slightly strained friendship with the top boy in his class, Sasuke Uchiha. They talked on a few occasions, and Naruto had spared with him a few time even though the raven haired boy was better at taijutsu. The blonde had even helped him escape from his fan-girls on a regular basis. After what had happened with his family Sasuke had almost completely closed off from everyone in the class and Naruto was one of the few that he actually responded to.

Naruto was happy, he had his friends, his puppets and though he still missed Sato the blonde knew that the old man would come back from the dead just kick his ass if he had turned into an emo.

XXX

**Right, I'm going to end it here. Next chapter is the Graduation and team placements.**

**Let me know what you think :)**


	2. Puppets

**Just a warning, I made a few adjustments to the graduation exam, if you don't like it then don't read XP**

**Also I have decided to have Naruto paired with Tenten, but Anko will still play a large part in the story, just not in a romantic light. Also, I will say this know, I am not having Naruto use Human puppets, to me that is more just Sasori's thing.**

XXX

**Disclaimer- I own nothing **:(

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Chapter 2- Puppets

XXX

The graduation exam was simple enough, they started off by showing their ability in throwing kunai and shrunken, followed by a jutsu demonstration, and ended with a full out spar between two students to show they were able to put the skills into practice. The last one didn't actually affect their final grade, but it did give their future sensei an idea of what they could do and was preformed in front of the Jonin that would be leading the teams.

Until a few years ago the exam had been different, the jutsu demonstration being only on the 'Academy three', Clone jutsu, Transformation Jutsu and Replacement Jutsu, and they didn't have the spar, but for whatever reason the Hokage had seen fit to change it in resent years. Not that anyone could blame him, the former test had been pathetic and the majority, with the odd exception of course, of genin that it had produced could barely be call such. Another change that had been made was that you needed to pass each stage of the exam, in order, to get your headband, meaning that if you failed the first you wouldn't take the next.

The throwing portion of the exam was the easiest, with only a few of the children from civilian families failing. Most got an average of seven out of ten for each and a few, namely Sasuke, Choji and Kiba, got nine or ten. It wasn't until the jutsu portion of the exam that things got interesting and where the most students were failed. Because most of the class was made up of children from civilian families the majority of students had performed the academy three, which while expectable they needed to be able to use all three to pass, but the class also had one of the highest number of clan-airs in many years.

Shino had preformed a Bug clone Jutsu and had followed it with a small demonstration on how he was able to control his swarm, which got a few screams from a couple of the more girly girls in the class. Choji had demonstrated his families Jutsu and had turned himself into a giant bowling ball and destroyed several training dummies. Shikamaru had simple trapped Iruka with his Shadow Imitation Jutsu before walking away and taking a nape against a tree. Ino had preformed her clans Mind Transfer Jutsu, taking over the body of Sakura Haruno, and Sasuke had demonstrated his Great Fireball Jutsu.

When it came to Naruto's turn he had the full attention of the entire class for one reason, no one actually knew what he could do. They all knew that it had something to do with the puppets that he was always working on in class, but none of them had any idea of how he could use them and were very interested in finding out.

Stepping into the small training ground that was being used for the test, Naruto reached into the pouch on his left hip and pulled out a scroll. They all watched as he slowly opened it and placed his thump on something written on the paper before he was surrounded by a cloud of white smoke that blocked him from view. When the smoke cleared everyone took a step back in surprise at what was now stood next to the blonde, even Iruka was shocked at what he was seeing.

Towering over them all was a thirteen foot tall puppet that looked like a cross between a man and a bull. It had broad shoulders and the head of a bull with two long metal horns on either side of its head that pointed forward and a mental plate with an orange swirl on its forehead. It had a human like upper body, but its hands were slightly disproportionate to rest by being twice the size they needed to be and were covered in metal armour. Sticking out of the back was a small chain with a kunai on the end instead of a tail and instead of feet it had too hooves. It had a loincloth around its middle and metal bracers on the wrists and ankles with small spikes circling them, and a circular metal plate over its chest. It also had metal shoulder pads with foot long metal spikes covering them. On the top of its head was a sort of Mohawk running from the top of its head behind the metal plate between its horns that trailed down to it lower back made from what Iruka could see were hundreds of black senbon needles.

It was an intimidating sight to be sure, it even had eyes that moved around as if it could actually see with them. Its large form actually blocked out the sun, casting a large shadow over both Naruto's fellow students and his sensei.

They were all so focused on the puppet that they almost missed the whiskered boy lifting his hands towards his large creation, his fingers spread out, and started to twitch them in seemingly random ways. It was at this point that the class got a second shock as, slowly at first, the bull/man hybrid started to move and face towards the three training dummies that had been set up at the other side of the training ground. It lifted both its arms out towards the dummies on either side of the one in the middle and with a small twitch of its fingers, the puppets two large hands shot off the ends of its arms straight towards the dummies, a chain connecting both to the puppet.

When the hands reached its targets the large hands easily grabbed them, covering the human sized dummies completely from the neck down, before the chains started to retract back into the arms. When the hands were back and had reattached to the puppet, its head lowered as if examining what was in its hands, before its mouth clicked open and they could all see a small pipe inside. Without warning a stream of fire shot out of the pipe, covering both the dummies in its clenched fists, and continued for about ten seconds before it stopped and the mouth closed with another click. The mental that coated both its hands was now glowing white hot from the heat, and all that was left of the dummies were two piles of ash that fell to the ground when it opened its hands.

Before anyone could comment on what had just happened, the bull/man puppet leaned forward and ran straight at the dummy that was left, its head down, horns pointing forward and heavy steps causing small tremors on the ground. The horn on the right side of its head went straight through the dummy's chest with no resistance, the metal spike easily cutting through the soft material, but instead of stopping it carried on and hit a tree that was sever feet behind it, knocking it down.

If it wasn't for the scarf covering the bottom of his face they were all sure that they would have seen Naruto smirking at their open mouths at the display of power, several of his class mates backing away when they remembered all the times they had made fun of him for 'playing with dolls'. It took about five minutes for Iruka to get over his own shock and make a few notes on his clipboard next to Naruto's name, manly that he was stronger then first thought and that he may be one of the few students that understood the need for secrecy in their profession.

When he had done that the scared chunin decided that he might be able to get one last lesson in before his class graduated and slowly made his way over to the blonde, his eyes not leaving the towering form of the puppet that was now stood next to him once again, before leaning down and whispering into Naruto's ear. The class watched as he seemed to think about something for a moment before nodding his head and turning to look at them with Iruka, who let a small smile cross his lips as he let himself fall into 'lecturing mode'.

"Alright class, Naruto has agreed to let me explain a few things about what he just did. The Art of Puppetry is both a very effective and difficult skill to learn, it involves the user moulding their chakra into strings and using these strings to control the movements of what is called Battle-Puppets. It is normally practiced by Suna-nin, but is not a village secret. A Battle-Puppet is a special puppet that is made with an assortment of weapons, many of which are hidden and only known to the user. There are several different types of Battle-Puppets, each designed with a specific reason and use. By the way Naruto, I would like to know where you got it as I have never seen a store in the village that sells Battle-Puppets."

Nodding his head, the whisked boy let a small smirk cross his lips under his scarf, looking forward to the scared Chunin's reaction.

"This puppet is called 'Minotaur', the design is based off of an old legend, and it is a Tank class Battle-Puppet with its made attribute being attack power. As for where I got it Iruka-sensei, my former sensei in the Art of Puppetry was a firm believer that a Puppeteer should only use puppets of their own creation, we designed it together and had started making it before he died four years ago."

Getting another surprised look on his face when he heard that Naruto had made it with whoever had taught him puppetry, Iruka made another note on his pad before nodding his head. After that the scared chunin lead the class to another training ground where they would be having their matches. Deciding not to reseal Minotaur because of the matches, Naruto had the giant walk next to him and soon found his friends walking with him, asking questions about his puppet and why he never showed it to them before now.

When they finally arrived at the sparing ground they could all see several older men and women stood on the other side, all of them clearly seen as ninja because of the way they dressed and held themselves, and sat in a chair at the front of the group was the Sandaime dressed in his robes and hat.

"I don't know about you guys but I hope I get the babe with the red eyes as my sensei!"

Shaking his head at Kiba's statement, the blonde walked over to a tree and sat down with his back against it, Shikamaru not far behind while Minotaur stood next to the tree he was leaning on. Naruto didn't miss the mixture of shocked and curios looks that were being sent towards his puppet, not that he was surprised. The only people that knew about any of his puppets were the Hokage and a few of the ANBU that were ordered to guard his house on his birthdays.

Most of the matches were pretty boring seeing as most of the civilian kids only used kunai and the academy three, though their were one or two that put up a decent fight. They didn't really pick up until Choji was paired against Shino. For most of the fight it looked like Choji had the advantage as he kept charging at the bug user in his cannon ball form. But that quickly changed when he hit a bug clone and had his chakra drained, making him an easy target for Shino to appear behind him and knock him out with a chop to the neck. After that Ino had an easy match against a civilian boy by taking over his mind and having him surrender. The match between Shikamaru and Sasuke didn't last long either, but that was because the lazy Nara surrendered the moment it started.

When it was finally his turn Naruto walked forward without a word, Minotaur to his right, making plans in his head when he saw that his opponent was Kiba and discreetly took a small smoke bomb out of his pocket. As the two boys stood across from each other everyone that knew Kiba were surprised to see the serious expression on his face, normally by now he would have been smirking and taunting his opponent to get them riled up, but he and Akamaru just stood their ground in silence.

The fact was Kiba wasn't as stupid as he let people think, his taunts and bosting normally being used as a way to anger his opponent's so they would get sloppy. But he knew that wouldn't on the blonde in front of him.

The second Iruka called the match Naruto threw the smoke bomb in his hand on the ground and disappeared before it cleared, leaving his class confused while the assembled jonin and Hokage nodded their heads at his thinking. Puppeteers rarely stayed in plain sight while in a fight, though the fact he was facing an Inuzuka made it unlikely he could stay hidden for long it was still a good strategy. However as the seconds ticked by, the dog like boy and his partner got confused expressions, which slowly grew on their faces as they sniffed the air before looking back at the giant puppet.

It happened so suddenly that they barely had enough time to dodge as the two large hands shot forward and made a grab at them, Kiba jumping to the left while Akamaru jumped to the right. But before they could regroup a small slot opened on the back of each hand to revel a pair of senbon launchers. Unfortunately, this time Akamaru was too slow to avoid the surprise attack and got hit in the leg with one of the senbon. By the time Kiba reached him, the small white puppy had fallen unconscious, the knockout solution that coated the senbon taking affect almost instantly.

At seeing his partner hurt, Kiba lost all rational thought and, quickly performing handseals shouted out the name of his Jutsu. His body tuning into a grey tornado, the young Inuzuka charged straight at the giant puppet, intent on ripping it to pieces.

"Piecing Fang Jutsu!"

The moment Kiba got within five feet of the puppet, purple smoke shot out of the nostrils on the bulls head, covering the area directly in front of it in a small cloud. In his rage the dog like boy didn't even notice that he had run straight into a trap. By the time the smoke had cleared everyone was surprised to find Kiba lying on the ground, twitching. But if that didn't surprise them what happened next sure did as, with a small clip, the circular metal armour plate on the front of Minotaur swung open and Naruto jumped out , letting everyone see that the inside of its chest was hollow and that the blonde had been hidden inside it the whole time.

Quickly making his way over to Akamaru, the whiskered boy bent down and held a small bottle under his nose. Whatever was in the bottle seemed to do the trick because by the time he had put the cork back in and returned it to his pocket the puppy was awake and running towards his downed partner. When he reached Kiba, instead of taking out another bottle, Naruto took a small needle from his pouch that had a strange yellow liquid inside it and without thinking stabbed it into his ass. For a moment nothing happened, then Kiba shot to his feet with a yell and started running around the sparing ground, his hands on his ass, Akamaru running after him and barking happily at the fact his friend was ok.

While everyone else was watching the young Inuzuka run around, Naruto turned to the Sandaime and nodded his head, which was returned a moment later with a small smile on his lips. Just like he had with Sato, they had been discussing the best way for Naruto to show his skills that would benefit both him and the village in the long run.

XXX

The next day Naruto returned to his classroom for what would be the last time, most of his classmates had arrived early, the excitement of finally becoming genin making them all too eager. He didn't miss the curious looks that were being sent to him while he walked to his usual seat at the back of the room. It had been a shock to many in the class when they saw what he could do, especially after he had spent the last five years keeping his head down to appear average. Many of the kids that would ignore him or had tried to pick on him over the years, though mostly because it was what their parents had told them to do, gave him a small nod of acknowledgment as he passed, which he would return.

The fact is that everyone in this room had been trained to be a ninja, even though some were better then others, and one of the first things they were taught was that if someone could hide their true abilities in the way he did then they deserved respect.

Taking his seat between Shino and Kiba, the latter still a little pissed off after what had happened yesterday, though it was more at his ass being used as a pincushion then losing. Naruto settled into his usual routine by pulling out an unfinished senbon launcher and working in silence while the rest of the class talked about how excited they were with each other.

Half an hour later Iruka walked into the room with a small smile on his face and a clipboard in his hands, it was the clipboard that drew everyone's eyes. More excited whispers started up, mostly coming from the few fangirls that had actually been able to pass talking about how much they wanted to be on Sasukes team, as the scared chunin stopped in front of his desk. Without another word, knowing from experience that nothing he said would sink in at this point with everyone so excited to be told their teams, Iruka took a deep breath and started reading out his list.

"Team 7 is made up of Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha and Sai, your Jounin sensei is Kakashi Hatake. Team 8 is Hinata Hyuga, Shino Aburame and Kiba Inuzuka, your sensei is Kurenai Yuhi. Team 10 will be Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akimichi, and your sensei is Asuma Sarutobi."

After he finished the list several students got confused expression on their faces when they noticed that Naruto's name had not been called. Seeing their faces, Iruka held up his hands to quiet the murmurs, before returning his eyes to the clipboard.

"Finally, Naruto Uzumaki, due to resent developments and the fact we have an uneven number of students passing this year, you are being placed in an apprenticeship under Special Jounin Anko Mitarashi."

At his words, more murmurs erupted from the class, several of the students sending him envious looks, not that Naruto was paying them any attention. He was more interested in the mechanism on the desk in pieces in front of him to care about their looks.

He didn't even look up when a window at the front of the classroom exploded and a purple haired woman jumped into the room. She was only wearing a fishnet shirt, with a short burnt orange skirt and a tan trench coat that barely covered her 'modesty'.

The moment he landed on the floor in front of Iruka, who instead of surprised only seemed a little annoyed at her sudden appearance, before her eyes zeroed in on the blonde at the back of the room. With a flick of the wrist, she sent a senbon directly towards him, on for him to catch it between his fingers without even looking up from the pile of parts in front of him.

This only seemed to make her smirk as, standing up straight, the unknown woman shoved her hands in her pockets and called up to the whiskered blonde.

"Not bad brat, but next time don't forget to return it after catching it. If you wait too long you lose the surprise factor."

Finally looking up from the desk, Naruto looked from the woman to his still raised hand with the kunai between his fingers, before scratching the back of his head in confusion.

"When the hell did that happen?"

While the re of the class could only sweat drop at his laidback attitude, it only made the woman's smirk turn into a grin.

"HA! I like you already, now get your arse down here so we can go, my name is Anko and I'm your new sensei."

Letting out a small sigh, Naruto resealed the parts laid on his desk into a small scroll, before slowly walking down to stand in front of the now named Anko.

"You ever hear of Training Ground 44?"

Another smirk when he nodded.

"Good, be there in ten minutes or else!"

Without another word, Anko disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

XXX

Stopping outside the metal fence that surrounded Training Ground 44, Naruto took a moment to process just what he was seeing. The forest on the others side looked more like an actual jungle, with giant trees and roots covering everything in sight.

"So you made it huh, good."

Looking up to one of the trees, Naruto saw Anko standing on a branch, looking down at him with a smirk on her lips. He watched as she jumped over the fence, landing gracefully on the ground in front of him, before laying an arm over his shoulders.

"Take a god look brat, because this is where I will be training you from now on. This place is full of all kinds of plants and animals that can be used to make poisons, and it's my job to teach you about all of them."

Raising an eyebrow at her words, Naruto took a moment to think about what she said before speaking.

"So that is why you agreed to take me as your apprentice, you are a poison specialist?"

Taking her arm off of his shoulders, Anko moved to stand in front of him with another grin on her face.

"That's right, I know more about poisons than anyone else in the village, and seeing as you seem to know a thing or two about them yourself, I figured why not. Now, this would normally be the part where I give you some kind of test to see if you are worth my time, but seeing as you both caught my senbon without looking and got here within the time limit, I think I will let you off the hook."

Nodding again, Naruto suddenly got a bad feeling and quickly pulled out a kunai, just in time to use it to block the one Anko tried to stab him with. For about thirty seconds, they stayed in a stalemate, before the purple haired special jounin let out a laugh and backed away, retuning her kunai to the pouch on her hip.

"You got good instincts, good, I will be attacking you at random to make sure you don't lose them. A good shinobi never lets their guard down even for a second."

"Understood, Anko-sensei."

XXX

Crouched in a on a branch overlooking a small clearing, Naruto let out a sigh as he looked at his target, a small cat with a ribbon on its ear named Tora. Sato had warned him when he was little that D-rank missions were mind-numbingly boring, and that the only reason they existed was to improve the relationship between the Ninja and the villagers, but at the time he just couldn't believe that such a pointless set of missions could exist.

It really was a waste of military resources, where instead of training fresh genin were forced to do things like paint fences or catch a runaway cat. But a mission was a mission, no matter how stupid it was.

Tapping the side of his sunglasses and putting on the headphones around his neck on, Naruto sent a small amount of chakra into both a blinked slightly when his vision shifted. It was something he and Sato had designed when he was still alive, two separate seals, one to link the user's eyes to the puppet, and the other to act as a microphone so he could hear what was going on around it. That was why all of his puppets had moving eyes, the movements mimicking his own.

It could be a little disorientating when fist activated, but it only lasted a second now that he was used to it.

The puppet he was using now was a little odd, but was the best he had at the moment for non-lethal capturing, and was named Gobbler. It looked like a large Toad or frog, standing at least three times the size of a full grown man, with two large eyes and an even bigger mouth and two nostrils. It was painted dark blue with red eyes, and was a little skinny, making it look more like a frog then a toad, with a light blue rubber underbelly.

Keeping the puppet in the tree line so it wasn't spotted by the 'demon cat', as he had heard the chunin handing out missions say, Naruto twitched a finger the mouth opened and as if shot out of a cannon, a long metal tentacle shot out towards the unsuspecting cat. It wrapped around the now struggling feline, before retracting back into the puppets mouth, a slight bulge forming in the rubber underbelly where the cat was being held.

Letting out a bored sigh, Naruto jumped down from his hiding place, landing next to his puppet and started walked back towards the Hokage tower to return the cat.

He really was getting tired of D-rank missions, having spent the last two weeks doing one a day. Anko didn't even bother coming with him anymore, saying life was too short and to just meet her at the Forest of Death when he was done. At least that's what she said, he knew she was always hiding nearby, watching and assessing his skills.

But if nothing else, it gave him some time to think, and out of all the missions catching Tora was at least interesting.

XXX

After he finished training for the day Naruto returned to his home and, only taking time to make himself to eat, made his way into the workshop to work on one of his new puppets. Anko had been right about the Forest of Death, it was filled with plants and animals that could be used to make poisons, and he was learning a lot from her.

Taking off his scarf, which Sato had given to him long ago, the small mask he worn around his mouth was in plain sight. Another thing Sato had taught him, when using poisons, always carry the antidote and wear a gas mask so you didn't get caught in your own technique.

XXX

**Hope you all like the chapter, I will try and get the next one out as soon as possible :)**

**R&R**


	3. Right of First Blood

**I will warn you know, don't get too used to these quick updates, I am just on a role with this fic at the moment but I have no idea how long it will last.**

**Enjoy :)**

XXX

Disclaimer- I own nothing :(

XXX

Chapter 3- Right of First Blood

XXX

Without even bothering to knock on the door, Anko walked into her new Apprentices' house without a care in the world, barely pausing in her steps to avoid the senbon traps that fired at her as she made her way towards the workshop. She had been here several times since taking the kid on, and while most would probably be creped out by the dark house with weapons on the walls and traps every few steps, for the purple hair jounin it was a nice quiet home.

She did live in the Forest of Death after all.

She would admit to having her doubts about the kid when the Hokage asked her to take him as her apprentice, but he was proving to be skilled, she had never seen someone take to the Forest of Death so quickly. He was even able to make things she had never thought of, and she was recognised as the poison expert in Konoha, with the only person being a match for her being Tsunade herself…and maybe her apprentice Shizune.

Sill not pausing in her steps, she causally placed the small gas mask the blonde had given her just in time to avoid taking a lungful of nerve gas hidden in a light fixture, leaving it on as she opened the door down to the basement/workshop.

It looked the same as the last time she had visited, shelves full of weapons and spare parts, half-finished puppet hung to one side, and a large object taking up a corner covered in a sheet. Anko had asked about it the last time, but all Naruto would say was that it was a long turn project, the last he and his old sensei had started to work on together before he died,

And there, sat in front of a table covered in different vials and chemistry equipment, was her whiskered Apprentice, gas mask in place and a pair of goggles covering his eyes as he slowly poured a clear liquid into a gas canister.

Knowing never to interrupt someone while working with poisons, she watched quietly as he placed it into a machine to make it pressurized, before moving to a different table. She didn't see what was on it, but if she had to guess it was a new puppet she hadn't seen before, and before she could get a good look he sealed it into a small scroll and put it into the pouch on his left leg.

"Is this important, Anko-sensei? I thought we were finished for the day after I found those flowers?"

Without a word, Anko threw a mission scroll over to him, which he caught without looking and unfolded it on the table to read.

He was about two lines in when his eyebrows appeared over his goggles.

"This is a scroll for a C-rank mission."

"Yep, convinced Hokage-sama to let us tap along with a more experienced Genin team, though I know the Jounin in charge of them personally and I will warn you he is a few short of a full deck. Just your basic bandit extermination, scouts found a decent sized camp of about thirty or forty near the border to Kusa."

Nodding his head as he continued to read the mission scroll, Naruto looked to his sensei out of the corner of his eye, rolling the scroll closed and passing it back to her.

"When do we leave?"

"East gate, 0700 tomorrow sharp, we're meeting team 9 at the gate."

XXX

When Anko had told him that the jounin-sensei of team 9 was a few short of a full deck, he didn't realise just how easy she had been putting it.

The man was doing push ups with his thumbs in a green spandex body suite with a mini me next to him for crying out loud, screaming about youth. He felt kind of bad for the other two genin stood to the side, making a point of looking everywhere but at them.

"See what I mean?"

Looking at his sensei out of the corner of his eye, who had just appeared in a swirl of leaves next to him, Naruto got a sweat drop on the back of his head when the man and clone started doing the push ups with their feet in the air.

"Is it too late to go catch Tora again?"

Instead of answering him, Anko threw her head back and laughed, drawing the attention of team 9.

"HA, ANKO-SAN, I HOPE YOUR FLAMES OF YOUTH ARE AS STRONG AS EVER-!"

"SHUT THE HELL UP YOU FREAK!"

While Anko chased Guy around trying to stab him with a kunai, the three genin made their way over to Naruto, the mini clone practically shaking with excitement.

"Yosh, you must be Naruto, my name is Rock Lee. Let us fan our flames of youth together on this mission."

Turing to look at the other two genin, a Hyuga that looked as if he didn't care about anything going on around him and a cute girl with her hair in two buns who was shaking her head, Naruto reached his hand into his kunai pouch and pulled out a small flack. He held it out to the green mini clone, who just smiled and took a gulp without thinking, before returning it and waited.

"Yosh, that was most refreshing, tha…th…th…wha' biz hapbni."

Grabbing his throat with wide eyes as his words became more slurred before stopping all together, Lee turned his attention back to the blonde with a betrayed expression on his face.

"Rule one, never except food or drink from someone you just met, even if they are your allies. Don't worry, the stuff you drank will only give you a numb tongue and dry throat for about three hours. But next time it will be something more powerful, until you learn."

Before any of the three genin could reply, well two considering Lee couldn't speak, Guy suddenly returned with a large grin on his face and threw an arm around Lee.

"Ha, a good lesson Naruto, you are absolutely right. LEE, for being caught out in such a way you will be walking on your hands until the effects wear off!"

His eyes suddenly burning with determination, Lee nodded his head and flipped onto his hands, the other two genin seeming to be stuck between being annoyed by the two clone's actions and confused that Naruto had basically just poisoned a fellow Leaf-nin.

"Good punishment guy, here, have a drink before we set off!"

Excepting the flask Anko held out to him with a grin, he took a large gulp before handing it back, not noticing Neji or Tenten flapping a hand to their faces at just how gullible the man was.

XXX

About three hours later, both Lee and Guy were finally walking on their feet again, after drinking almost half a lake they had passed on the way, and the group of Leaf-nin were making good time. According to Anko, they would be arriving at their destination about an hour before nightfall.

While they were walking Guy and Anko explained that Naruto would be the one to begin the attack, and if he wasn't able to finish them all Team 9 would step in. The two sensei called it his Right of Frist Blood, which seemed to shock the three more experienced genin when they found out this was his first C-rank, apparently they hadn't done this until their fifth C-rank mission. But Anko was a firm believer that it was better to get this over with as soon as possible so that, if he couldn't take the fact he was going to kill people being a ninja, he could quit now and find a different job.

It was a theory Naruto found himself agree with, even if he didn't think it would bother him too much, because like all the thing Sato had taught him, it was practical. He had already decided on the puppet he was going to use, more specifically the one he had finished just last night, and was getting himself into the right mind set for what he was going to do.

Naruto also didn't miss the slightly worried looks both Tenten and Lee were sending him, though Neji still didn't seem to care, and it was getting on his nerves.

"What?"

Seeming surprised that he noticed them, Tenten had a small blush spread across her cheeks at being caught, and after clearing her throat gave him a sheepish smile.

"Sorry, it's just you're only a new genin, I don't know what your sensei is thinking putting you through your Right of First Blood…"

Frowning slightly at her words, though the only reason she knew he was doing this was by the lines on his forehead creasing slightly because of the scarf covering the lower half of his face, Naruto turned to look at her directly as they continued to walk.

"It is a practical approach to a problematic situation. While I do not expect to have too big an issue with killing, it is better we find out now so that neither of us is wasting our time. If it turns out that I don't have the stomach for being ninja, I will need to find a new something else to do with my life."

Neither Tenten nor Lee seemed reassured by his words, but Neji nodded his head, and spoke for the first time since they had met.

"A good assessment, while I don't know your skill, your mind set and the fact you have are in an apprenticeship suggests you were the Rookie of the Year?"

Turning his attention to the stoic Hyuga, Naruto could only raise an eyebrow.

"Hell no, I worked hard to make sure I was average in everything, right up until the graduation exam at the end."

Once again getting the attention of all three genin, and their Jounin-sensei, Naruto decided to explain when he saw their confused expressions.

"While it is not easy to steal information from other villages, it is still something that happens on a regular basis, and information on genin and academy students can be like gold. It gives other villages an idea of who they will be dealing with in the future and tells them if it would be worth assassinating them before they get to strong. By keeping myself in the academic average, I have brought myself more time to train before getting to much attention. It also gives me an advantage over someone who does have the information because they will not be expecting me to be too strong. As for why I am Anko-sensei's apprentice, the main reason is that my style involves using poisons, and she is the foremost expert on the subject currently in the village."

The rest of the walk was silent after the blondes explanation, all three genin thinking over what he had said, and wondering why they hadn't thought of that while in the academy themselves.

While the genin were thinking over what they had been told, Guy and Anko were having a quiet conversation at the back of the group.

"I think I see why you are having him take the Right of First Blood so early, he is a practically minded person, if a little too robotic for one so young. You will need to be careful, too much pressure and his mind could snap like a twig, I have seen it several times before in promising genin and even chunin."

Nodding her head in understanding, Anko frowned slightly as she watched the blonde walking at the front of the group, and even though she was looking at the back of his head she knew he was checking every shadow for attacks.

"I know, but the fact is his style is lethal, better for him to make his first kill under controlled circumstances then it to be on some random mission. Because if I took him on a low C-rank and something went wrong, I can tell you he would be going for the kill, something he was taught before even going to the academy."

Eyes widening slightly as a thought hit her, Anko suddenly reached into her pouch and pulled out four gas masks like the one Naruto gave her and handed them to Guy, the man getting a slightly confused look on his face as he took them.

"Keep one for yourself and give the others to your Genin, tell them to put them on when we reach our destination or if we are attack on the way, that way they wouldn't get caught in the crossfire of Naruto's attacks."

XXX

They stopped in the trees about a 100 meters away from the bandit camp, which between the large fire and sound of drunk men could have been spotted a mile away in every direction, and had spent the last hour observing them. It was your basic bandit camp, if a little bigger than most, with ten small tens arranges in a circle, with a larger one that they assumed was used to keep the supplies.

There were about forty bandits, give or take a few, and at least half of them were drunk while the other half acting as the guards for the night from what they could tell, seeming to be patting themselves on the backs for a successful raid that day.

Naruto waited until he was given a silent message from Anko to start the attack, which she gave after making sure both she and team 9 all had their masks on, before jumping to a different tree and pulling out a scroll from his pocket.

Because of the darkness and the noise coming from the camp, the sound of the puppets being unsealed went unheard, but all the other Leaf-nin could see when the smoke cleared was human shaped object covered from head to toe in a tattered black cloak. Unknown to everyone but Naruto, the moment he unsealed the puppets, a clear, unscented gas was released into the air, before being carried downwind directly towards the bandits.

Waiting five minutes to make sure they would all have breathed in the gas, Naruto smirked behind his scarf, tapping his glasses and putting the headphones on, before making the puppet move down the footpath directly towards the bandit camp. With another twitch of his fingers, black smoke started billowing out from the bottom of the cloaked puppet, much to the confusion of the other Leaf-nin. The puppet moved silently, seeming to glide across the ground instead of walk, the black smoke settling around it like a second cloak of darkness.

What happened next surprised both Team 9 and Anko because while the puppet was a little creepy, though Anko was the only one at the moment to know it was a puppet, the reactions of the bandits was instant when the cloaked figure came into their sights. The moment they saw the cloaked figure coming towards them fear set in, the bandit's eyes all widening in fear as they turned white and started screaming, some falling over and trying to crawl away.

With another smirk, Naruto sent a small amount of charka into his gas mask, the seal he added to it now working like a microphone, and a deep, scratchy voice from under the puppets hood.

"**Humans…Diiiiiiiieeeeeeee!**"

With the word die, the cloak was flung off of the puppet, and the bandits fear turned into full on panic at the sight of what was under the cloak, several having their eyes role into the back of their heads and foam spill out of their mouths from fear.

This was Naruto's newest puppet, Reaper, which while simple in design was perfect for what he wanted it for. It looked like a skeleton, with two glassy black eyes, a large scythe with a blade twice the size of a man and a pair of wings on its back. It had no legs, just floating in the air thanks to the mild anti-gravity seal placed on it, and had black smoke coming out of its ribcage curling around it. Because of the smoke, you couldn't see the two the two tanks inside the ribcage, one producing the smoke, the other the clear gas.

While it did look scary, Team 9 still didn't understand why the bandits seemed to be so terrified of it, but their attention moved to Anko when they heard her let out a small chuckle. Seeing their confusion, the purple haired Special Jounin decided to explain, her voice slightly muffled by the mask on her face.

"In the Forest of Death, there is a type of flower that's scent causes hallucinations and mild panic, from the looks of it Naruto weaponries it into a gas. Those bandits think they are looking at an actual monster and their mind are in such a panic they don't realize it's not real, their sitting ducks."

Eyes widening, they all turned back to the camp just in time to see the edge of the scythe in Reapers hands turn red as several seals were activated, heating it up. Then it started. The puppet started swinging the scythe, cutting of heads like a hot knife through butter, cauterizing the wounds at the same time so there wasn't any blood.

None of the bandits out up a fight, too afraid because of what the gas was making them see. Several of them actually seemed to have heart attacks, falling over dead before the puppet even had time to reach them.

As this was going on, Naruto distracted his mind away from what he was doing by thinking over the effects of the gas on the man, his finger moving on autopilot to keep controlling Reaper. The gas worked as he expected it to, but these were only untrained bandits, against a ninja the effects would be much more diluted. It would still work, but a strong opponent would be able to shake off the worst of it. Reaper wasn't a straight up Battle puppet, designed more to work in tandem with the fear gas and pick off people while they were too scared to move, and would be too slow again anyone above high chunin to be effective.

But these bandits were good test subjects if nothing else.

XXX

After all the bandit were taken care of, Team 9 moved in to search the camp for anything useful, weapons, food, etc. While they were doing that, Anko made her way over to a quieter then usual Naruto, which was impressive seeing as he was normally quiet anyway. He was sat on a fallen tree, his puppet once again sealed in the scroll, clearly trying not to look at the bodies being piled up on the other side of the camp.

She had seen this before when a genin did their Right of First Blood, though it was rare, sometimes their minds slipped into what more experienced ninja called 'mission mode', a sort of autopilot, only for what they did to hit them like an earth Jutsu when the adrenalin wore off. It was both a good and bad sign, good because it meant he could already separate his emotions to get on with a mission, bad because when it wore off the strain on the mind was nearly doubled.

Falling into a sitting position on the tree next to her blonde apprentice, Anko, in her usual sense of grace, decided to ay the first thing that came to her mind.

"So…you going to be a giant girl now and sulk or something?"

Anko Mitarashi, master of being understanding…not.

Frowning behind his scarf, Naruto reached into his pocket and pulled out a small spray bottle, before quickly pointing it at Anko and spraying a green mist into her face. Only for his frown to deepen when instead of fainting, she swiped it away with her hand, showing that she had put her mask on just before he sprayed it.

"Ha! Nice try brat, but you're a few years away from being able to surprise me!"

Taking a moment to enjoy his annoyed expression, Anko's mood suddenly sobered and, letting out a sigh she turned to Naruto with a slightly sad expression on her face.

"Maybe this was too soon, your only a few weeks out of the academy after all, I should have taken things slower and-"

"It not that."

Stopping when he interrupted her, Anko waited for him to continue, not sure if this was good or bad.

"I honestly don't really care about killing those men, they were nothing more than thieves and murders, maybe even worse than that…but that's just it, I _don't care_. I killed them all and don't care…"

There were a lot of reactions he had been expecting from Anko, revulsion, anger even, but what he wasn't expecting was for her to start laughing.

"Is that what this is about? You had me worried there for a moment."

Seeing his confusion, Anko wrapped her arm around his shoulders, pulling him into a one armed hug.

"Its fine not to care that you killed a bunch of scumbags, the world is better off without them anyway. But if you didn't care about not caring, that's when something's wrong with you, as long as it bothers you your fine."

"…that doesn't make _any_ sense at all Anko-sensei…"

His only response was another large grin.

After a few moments of comfortable silence, both watching as Lee and Guy tried to have a race to see who could seal the most stuff, Anko finally turned her attention back to Naruto with a small smirk on her face.

"So that new puppet of yours was interesting, nice idea by the way to weaponries those flowers by the way, you got a name for it yet."

Glade to be talking about something else, Naruto got a small smile on his face as the conversation switched to something he liked talking about, his puppets.

"Reaper, I'm calling him Reaper, though he still needs a little work. I want to try and make him faster, and maybe increase the potency of the fear gas, at the moment it wouldn't have much of an effect on a Jounin or higher and his speed is only high chunin at best."

Letting out a chuckle at how much of a perfectionist her student was, Anko shook her head lightly, before another idea came to her mind.

"You mind if I have some of the stuff you got now? I'm sure the guys in I&T would love it in their arsenal, one more thing to get under their…guests, skin."

Reaching into his pocket, Naruto pulled out a small vile of clear liquid, holding it up for her to see.

"I already thought of that, this one is a weaker version of the fear gas, it only makes people nervous instead of afraid so you wouldn't get any of your…guests, dying of heart attacks before you get what you need. This should be enough for you to make more, and once inhaled the effects last for about an hour, though if I were you I'd pump it into the room then do the interrogation after guests inhaled it, if they know they have taken it the effect are lessoned and the body can fight it."

Taking the vile with a large grin, Anko quickly put it in her pouch before any of Team 9 saw it, after all, the less people who know about it the better.

XXX

It was the day after they returned form Naruto's first C-rank mission, and Naruto was, surprise, surprise, downstairs in the workshop working on his 'long term project'. As things were going he was expecting to be done in about another year, if he was lucky, sooner if he could bet the Shadow Clone Jutsu mastered soon.

Along with the house, equipment and money Sato had left him, Naruto had also inherited several Jutsu scrolls when the man had died. The Shadow Clone Jutsu was one of them, though he had promised Sarutobi not to try and learn it until he had at least become a genin, and would have started working on it sooner if he had had the time.

He was just in the middle of installing another weapon when the sound of his door bell met his ears, having installed one years ago so he could hear it in the workshop, which brought a small frown to his lips. The only people that visited him were the Hokage and Anko, the first one normally only coming on the weekend and the second never bothering to ring the bell, so who would be ringing his bell?

Moving the project back into the corner and covering it backup with a sheet, Naruto quickly made his way to the front door, only stopping to look through the peephole. To say he was surprise to see Tenten waiting outside was an understatement, she hadn't even tried to talk to him on the way back from the bandit camp, and he had no idea how she found out where he lived.

Opening the door, the chain still on holding it mostly closed, the whiskered blonde moved to that one of his eyes could be seen through the gap, well one of the lenses on his glasses at least.

"Who the hell do you know where I live?"

Looking slightly uncomfortable, Tenten rubbed the bad of her head with a small blush on her face, before showing him the piece of paper in her hand.

"Erm…well your sensei gave me your address and…"

Letting out a sigh, Naruto undid the chan on the door and held it open, gesturing for her to come in. just as well he remembered to disable the traps.

"…do you want to come in?"

Blush growing slightly larger, Tenten took a quick look around to see if anyone was watching her, before nodding and walking passed him, the door being closed behind her. They stood in the hall for about ten seconds before Naruto turned and led her towards the living room.

"Do you want something to drink?"

He noticed the slightly worried expression the brown haired teen got at the mention of a drink, making him chuckle as he walked over to the kitchen, before talking over his shoulder.

"Don't worry, I wouldn't put anything in your drink, the only reason I trick Lee-san before was because his shouting was giving me a headache. Though it was a good lesson for him to learn."

Hearing his words, Tenten didn't know if she should be laughing or more cautious, so decided to just play it safe.

"Thank, but I'm alright…really I am."

Shrugging his shoulders, Naruto came back and sat in the armchair, motioning for the Kunoichi to take a seat on the couch across from him.

They sat in silence for the next five minutes, Tenten looking more and more nervous by the second, and the fact she could feel Naruto's eyes staring at her didn't help either. He literally hadn't moved for the last five minutes, not even his chest, and the dark room only seemed to give the house a slightly sinister feel.

It was because of how nervous she was that it wasn't until minute six passed that she finally noticed the weapons covering every spear inch of the walls, except for a blank space about the fireplace. Her mood did a 180 instantly, stars in her eyes as she shot to her feet and started zipping around the room, looking from one weapon to another, blabbering about each one before moving to the next.

After getting over his surprise at the sudden mood change, Naruto sat back in his chair and waited for her to tire herself out…and after another ten minutes went by and she showed no sign of stopping, cleared his throat to get her attention. When that didn't work, he frowned slightly before standing up and, much to the shock of the oblivious Tenten, picked her up by the back of her shirt and threw her back onto the couch.

"Are you going to tell me why Anko-sensei gave you my address, or maybe why you are here, or would you prefer I leave you to admire my old sensei's used weapon collection?"

Getting another blush, Tenten straightened herself on the couch before letting out a small cough, trying to calm herself down.

"Sorry about that, I just love weapons, it's actually my dream to be one of the best Weapon Mistresses of Konoha…."

The moment she said this, Naruto knew why she had turned up at his house, and it made him frown.

"No."

Looking at the blonde in surprise, it took Tenten a moment before what he said sunk in, before she got a confused expression on her face.

"No what?"

"No, I will not teach you the Art of Puppetry."

"Why not! I already know how to use charka strings…"

"I have dedicated the last seven years of my life to learning everything I can about making and using puppets, and I have barely scratched the surface, while your focus is on every weapon you can get your hands on. Now there is nothing wrong with that, just like every other ninja art it has its advantages and disadvantages, but the fact remains you are not suited to puppetry."

Seeing the disappointed look on her face, Naruto suddenly got an idea and, letting out a sigh, got to his feet.

"Wait here…I'll be right back.

XXX

**Hope you liked it :)**

**R&R**


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